Guide
Sanibel After Hurricane Ian: What Is Open Now
Featured
Four years on, most of the island is trading and some of it is bare ground. Here is what has actually reopened, with dates, and what has not.
9 min readHarriet Lowell
Guides
Guides to Sanibel
10 long-form guides to Sanibel, each one signed and dated so you can see how current it is. They answer the questions that do not fit on a listings page: how the place is laid out, what you will actually be charged for, and which trade-offs are worth making.
Start here
The one to read first
Four years on, most of the island is trading and some of it is bare ground. Here is what has actually reopened, with dates, and what has not.
Guides
Plan
Guide
The Best Time to Visit Sanibel, Month by Month
Temperature is the least useful thing to plan around here. What changes month to month is the tide line, the refuge and the price.
9 min readRosa Villanueva
Guides
Explore
Guide
A First-Timer's Guide to Sanibel Island
FeaturedOne road on, no traffic lights, metered sand and a law about what you may pick up. Sanibel rewards a visitor who understands it before they cross the bridge.
10 min readHarriet Lowell
Guide
Sanibel Beaches: Which One, and What It Costs
FeaturedTwelve miles of south-facing sand, seven metered car parks and a tide that decides everything. Here is which beach to pick and when.
10 min readHarriet Lowell
Guide
A Day on Captiva: Crossing Blind Pass
Cross the pass and the island turns ninety degrees. Captiva runs north to south and faces west, which is why the sunset is there and not here.
8 min readHarriet Lowell
Guides
Outdoors
Guide
Ding Darling Refuge: A Visitor's Guide to Wildlife Drive
FeaturedFour miles of one-way road through 6,400 acres of mangrove. It is closed on Fridays, and the tide decides whether you see anything.
8 min readCaleb Nystrom
Guide
Shelling on Sanibel: The Complete Guide
FeaturedThe island lies broadside to the Gulf and works like a scoop. Learn the tide, learn the law, and learn to tell a live sand dollar from a dead one.
11 min readCaleb Nystrom
Guide
Biking Sanibel: The Shared-Use Path, Route by Route
The island chose a bicycle network over wider roads. Twenty-five-plus miles of separated paved path, flat end to end, and the better way to see almost everything.
8 min readRosa Villanueva
Guide
Birding on Sanibel: Where, When and What
More than 245 species have been recorded at the refuge alone. The trick is not where to stand — it is when, and the answer is a falling tide.
7 min readCaleb Nystrom
Guides
Who it suits
Guide
Sanibel with Kids: What Works and What Does Not
No theme park, no arcade, no pier. What Sanibel gives children instead is a beach that hands them something new every twenty feet.
9 min readRosa Villanueva